Death Track extracted by Underdogs for Home of the Underdogs, http://www.theunderdogs.org CONTENTS A Note to the Impatient........................................Below Quick Start Instructions.......................................... 3 From the Pit: DEATHTRACK for Beginners............................ 4 Getting Started: Game Installation................................ 4 Know Your Drivers................................................. 4 Player Controls - Menu Selections................................. 4 Choosing a Car.................................................... 5 Buying Parts and Weapons.......................................... 5 Start Racing...................................................... 8 Keep Your Eyes Off the Road....................................... 9 Player Controls: On the Track.....................................11 Entering the Pit..................................................12 Appendix A: Making Backup Copies..................................13 Appendix B: Formatting Blank Disks to Save Games..................13 Appendix C: User Options at Start-Up..............................13 A NOTE TO THE IMPATIENT If you want to jump right in and start racing DEATHTRACK, follow these instructions. When you've played enough times to want to know more about the circuit, weapons, parts & controls, refer to the main section of this guide. NOTE: These Quick Start instructions assume a working knowledge of basic DOS commands. If you have problems, refer to the main section of the manual. SLY Avg.Elims/Year: 5.29 Favorite Weapon: S&B DeltaMax-1 Home: Moon Base Alpha Best Track: Chicago Car: Night Stalker Favorite Food: Smokey Links "I like to build my car up pretty evenly. When I get a big engine, I also improve the trans, tires, brakes, and airfoils. I find it better to have so- so quality everywhere than awesome parts in some places and cheap parts in others. ____________________________________________________________________________ MOTORMANIAC Avg.Elims/Year: 6.42 Favorite Weapon: RDI MetalStorm 50's Home: Atlanta, Ga. Best Track: Boston Car: MondoBondo Favorite Food: Corn on the Cob "When you come tearing up on wreckage on the road, make every attempt to miss it. It tears up your underside and scratches the finish. The same goes for staying on the track. Off-road racing is hard on these beasts." ____________________________________________________________________________ WRECKER (The Polish word for Wrecker) Avg.Elims/Year: 14.3 Favorite Weapon: S&B Auto-Cannon Home: Warsaw, Poland Best Track: Phoenix Car: Warhog Favorite Food: Cottage Cheese "If you're hopelessly out-gunned and your modifications haven't kept up with the rest of the trackers, try falling behind the pack and letting them pick each other off before getting into the action. Don't fall so far behind that you get lapped, though." ____________________________________________________________________________ MELISSA Avg.Elims/Year: 6.89 Favorite Weapon: TTI Dragon Terminators Home: Eugene, OR. Best Track: Manhattan, NY. Car Name: Vixen Favorite Food: Oysters "When you start feeling real degradation in performance, pull into the pit and check damage. Your car will run with most of your parts severely damaged. You can even run around the track on your rims if you like." ____________________________________________________________________________ MEGADEATH Avg.Elims/Year: 2.54 Favorite Weapon: SDI PT Sunburst Home: Unknown Best Track: Los Angeles Car: Hammerhead Favorite Food: Vitamin E "When the race starts, I don't waste time getting ready to blow up the guy in front of me. I put the foot down before the WCI kicks in to put some asphalt between me and the pack." ____________________________________________________________________________ KILLER ANGEL Avg.Elims/Year: 10.6 Favorite Weapon: DMS Steel Arrows Home: Chicago, Il. Best Track: Seattle Car: Devil's Revenge Favorite Food: Tortellini "The best way to dodge a missile is to stomp hard on the brakes. You can't outrun a missile going 400 MPH in a car with a top speed of 300MPH. I always get the best brakes at the parts shop to pull this off." ____________________________________________________________________________ LURKER Avg.Elims/Year: 3.61 Favorite Weapon: MX-35 Mines Home: San Francisco, CA. Best Track: Orlando Car: The Grunt Favorite Food: Black-Eyed Peas "The Pitbull is one of my favorite cars. It's armor keeps you in the hunt longer and more than makes up for its relative lack of speed. The firepower isn't much, but you can always improve that at the shops." ____________________________________________________________________________ PREYING MENACE Avg.Elims/Year: .59 Favorite Weapon: Scorpion Terminators Home: Manhattan, NY. Best Track: St. Louis Car: The Bandit Favorite Food: Sardines "Once I've got my car maxxed out on parts and weapons, I simply stop in the pits near the end of a race and repair and rearm. Then I just keep on racing through the entire circuit." ____________________________________________________________________________ CRIMSON DEATH Avg.Elims/Year: 10.8 Favorite Weapon: DWS Falcon Missiles Home: Tokyo, Japan Best Track: Houston Car: Samurai Favorite Food: Hot Dogs "If you time it just right, you can come down off the jumps and land right on top of the poor sucker in front of you. It does a great deal of damage to him, even if it isn't so good for your own car." ____________________________________________________________________________ THE CREATORS OF DEATHTRACK Tom Collie, Mark Brenneman, Darek Lukaszuk, Bryce Morsello It was a cool, autumn day when we all sat down to find a fun game concept that would excite players into that emotional catharsis that results only from that unique combination of speed and maneuverability delivered by a car- racing game. And, more importantly, a game concept that would let us pose in front of a Ferrari looking nonchalant. With that solid premise we sat down to work on DEATHTRACK -- after, of course, convincing everyone that we were qualified to create a game about motorsports. Mark: "I know cars, man. I spent seven years off the coast of Alaska, so I know cars." Bryce: The Ferrari Testarossa is the serious road-racers choice. You can't very well race without power windows, can you?" Tom: "I really know vintage cars. I've got a 1978 Ford Fiesta that works as well now as it was when it was new." Derek: I own a Mercedes, man. What more do you want?" After dazzling them with our innate sense of automobile racing, we went for it. Darek wrote the code, Tom did the art, Bryce did the sound effects, and Mark built all the 3-space objects. Jeff got us pizza late nights and ran errands (He was also company president in his spare time). Drive safely, and remember: "Porsche" is a two-syllable word. Pit Crew: Piotr"Hmmmm"Lukaszuk for fast graphics Dave"Wiz"McClurg for 3-space, etc. Paul Bowman for playing football with us. Jeff"Really, I am the President"Tunnell Steve"Is yesterday too soon?"Ackrich Dedicated to the memory of Enzo Ferrari Moral support: W.L., T.L., T.R., A.T., C.T., T.H., S.S. Thanks to Steve Wendell for the Red Ferrari (We'll probably return it soon) Special Thanks to Terry Ishida QUICK-START INSTRUCTIONS 1)- Make back-up copies of your DEATHTRACK diskettes. 2)- Install the game on your hard drive (if applicable). DEATHTRACK has an Installation batch file. 3)- Type DTRACK and press ENTER at the DOS prompt. After the game loads, press the joystick button or spacebar to begin. 4)- Answer the question that appears about a DEATHTRACK driver by finding the CORRECT answer in this guide and selecting the answer from the choices appearing on the screen. 5)- To move through the menus, move the pointer with the cursor keys or joystick or use the TAB key to jump between menu choices. To enter your selection, press the ENTER key, spacebar or joystick button 1. 6)- You start the game with $10,000. Go to THE SHOPS to buy new parts and weapons. The Weapons Shop gives you money back on your old weapons when you buy new ones. The Parts Shop doesn't. 7)- When you've improved your car, choose RUN A TRACK or choose FULL CIRCUIT RUN. (See the rest of this guide for details) Once you're in a FULL CIRCUIT RUN, you can SAVE THE CIRCUIT or BAIL ON THIS CIRCUIT, which allows you to start over with a new car. You can't load a new circuit or start a new game until you finish the current one, or BAIL ON THIS CIRCUIT. 8)- Control your car with the joystick, mouse or keyboard. (Best results will be obtained with a joystick) See main manual for details. 9)- When you're finished, select BAIL OUT to return to DOS. FROM THE PIT: DEATHTRACK FOR BEGINNERS Greetings, Sports Fans! Hey, how about that dustup in Orlando last month? Was that DeathTrack at its best or what? I thought I was going to die and go to Heaven when Angel slammed that Terminator up Wrecker's tailpipe and blew his carcass right into the pressbox! Just another night on the circuit, and the stars were out (some more than others)! I know there are lots of runny-nosed young shavers coming in new to the monster sport of DeathTrack, beguiled by bright lights and big guns. So, as a public service to all you virgins out there, I'll explain how "Tracking" works. You cruise your ground pounder at maximum speed and eliminate the competition by ramming them, slicing their tires, dropping mines beneath their underbellies, and of course, blasting them with a charming variety of particle beams, leasers, missiles, and good old fashioned machine guns. Road signs point out which way the road is going to turn, so keep an eye on them and try to stay on the track. Running off the road slows you down a lot, and its hard to get traction when you're off the blacktop. If your car gets damaged, its performance will drop. Pull over into the pits to repair or get more weapons. Outrace 'em or outgun 'em or both. The object is to cross the finish line first. Kills are worth points to your final score, but they don't earn you bucks, so drive hard. The more you soup up your car, the more you win. Got it? Good. Sound easy? Well, lots of other buzzard bait and highway pizza thought so too.......... GETTING STARTED: GAME INSTALLATION 1)- Turn on your computer and monitor. Load DOS (It works better that way) 2)- Make backup copies of all disks- see Appendix A at the end of this guide 3)- Insert your backup copy of disk 1 in Drive A and switch to that drive by typing A: and pressing ENTER. 4)- At the A:> prompt, type DTRACK and press ENTER. After the startup screen appears, press the spacebar or fire button to begin. Follow the onscreen prompts. To install DEATHTRACK on a hard disk: 1)- Insert your backup copy of Disk 1 in Drive A and switch to that drive by typing A: and pressing ENTER. 2)- Type INSTALL followed by the drive name (e.g., C:) and press ENTER. This will create a new directory (called DTRACK) on the designated drive, and copy all the files from the floppy disk onto the hard drive. You will be prompted to insert the other disks as required. To start from the hard drive, switch to the DTRACK directory by typing CD DTRACK and pressing ENTER. To start the game, type DTRACK and press ENTER. KNOW YOUR DRIVERS After starting the game, you'll be asked a question about one of the DEATHTRACK drivers. Find the answer in this guide and select the correct answer from the choices onscreen. If you answer incorrectly, you'll enjoy a brief demonstration of the game before being returned to DOS. Find the illustration of the track displayed on your screen in the manual and enter the answer to the question on your screen exactly as it appears in the manual PLAYER CONTROLS -- MENU SELECTIONS DEATHTRACK supports joystick or keyboard control. The game automatically recognizes a joystick if it's present when you start the game. To toggle through the various menu selections, move the pointer with the cursor keys or joystick, or use the TAB key to jump between menu choices. To enter your selection, press the ENTER key, spacebar or joystick button 1. To quit the game and return to DOS, select BAIL OUT as available. The CTRL and ESC keys pressed together will also return you to DOS. GAME SPEED ADJUSTMENT The following keys are active at any time to configure DEATHTRACK for optimum performance on your computer: KEY FUNCTION + Increase screen detail (Default is maximum detail) - Decrease screen detail (Faster frame update) Use the + or the - key on the keyboard (NOT the keypad) to change screen detail. The + key increase detail; the - key decreases it (allowing for faster frame updates). The default is maximum detail. CHOOSING A CAR So, you say you want to be a DEATHTRACK racer, hmmm? Worse beginners have strapped themselves into a ton and a half of death machine. Let's see how you do. Your first big decision will be choosing a car. The frames and dashboards of the cars are all different, but the main differences are their weapons and auto parts. You see, DEATHTRACK cars are pretty modular. You can replace all the basic parts and weapons. If you really wanted to, you could take your Pitbull and chop it into a Crusher. Or vice versa. Or transform it into something even better. The differences between the cars are only important in the first few races. After that, your car will be better than any starting car. If you're still alive. The HELLCAT is a fast car, with a good engine and transmission; an XT Turbo and PowerStream Deluxe. The weapons are standard, except for some Ajax B260 Wheel Spikes and an Auto Pike SR60 Ram Spike. It's good for outrunning the competition. The engine and spikes make it a car designed for passing. And causing lots of damage as you go by. The CRUSHER has a decent airfoil and armor, and a good laser. The airfoil is a SlipStream Deluxe, the armor is Steel Plate, and the laser is a PolyTech Sunburst, by SDI. It's a good all-around, middle-of-the-road car. The PITBULL knows how to take and give out punishment. It comes with outstanding Titanium Core armor, and a DeltaMax 1. Everything else on it isn't the greatest, but it'll get you around the track. SuperSlip Brakes. Stuff like that. Good for people who want to built their way through a race. Once you pick your car, cruise on over to the Parts Shop and modify your new beast. Select THE SHOPS and see how quick you can spend the $10,000 you start with. BUYING PARTS AND WEAPONS All you have to do to equip your death machine is select things from a simple menu. Select the part you want and it'll be requisitioned from storage, billed to your account, and fitted to your car. Want to upgrade some gear? No problem. The Parts Shop will even buy your old weapons back from you, and credit the value of it to your new purchase! What more could you ask for? Offer only good for used weapons. Used auto parts cannot be exchanged. Buying parts and weapons is a two-step procedure: 1)- Select an object. The object will be highlighted. 2)- Select BUY IT. The object number will increase by one, and your money will decrease in payment. You may also purchase parts and weapons by pressing B on your keyboard. The automated purchase system can't be cheated -- it'll tell you when you're trying to get something you can't afford, or when you've purchased the maximum amount you're allowed to carry of any part or weapon. SHOP OR DIE: BUYING AUTO PARTS The Parts Shop stocks 3 grades of each component, ranging from mediocre to excellent to outstanding. The highest grades of each component are all designed to satisfy your most outrageous cravings for power. Make a monster, monster, monster car! Beef up that mauler as much as you can afford. You can only buy higher grades of auto parts between races, so choose your start parts carefully. Your battles could be won or lost in the Shops before the race begins. If you want the specs on the stuff you're buying, select the item you're interested in, and then select DESCRIBE or press D on your keyboard. When you're done outfitting your rig, select OUT'A HERE and get set to race. WHICH AUTO PARTS SHOULD YOU BUY? Read the onscreen descriptions for all parts for a good understanding of their relative strengths and weaknesses. As a general rule, the more expensive parts will perform substantially better than the less expensive ones. many of the higher-priced parts have additional armor enhancements which reduce the amount of damage done to that part, regardless of your car's armor rating. ENGINES: The better your engine the higher your top speed. BRAKES: Good brakes can keep you out of trouble. You don't need to try and outrun everything thrown at you. TRANSMISSIONS: Transmissions handle three of the most important aspects of DeathTrack racing: Acceleration, Acceleration, and Acceleration! TIRES: Poor tire slip all over the road. And off the road as well. But good tires grip the road reliably and improve acceleration. AIRFOILS: Airfoils work with your tires to increase traction, and improve your road handling. Good tires without good airfoils are a waste of money. The most powerful engines and transmissions are inefficient and sloppy without a good airfoil. ARMOR: Higher-grade armor weighs less and protects better. Any armor can be torn apart with enough hits. Face it. There are only two places you can be: On the road or scattered all over it. DEADLY TOYS: A VISIT TO THE WEAPONS SHOP Buying weapons works exactly like buying auto parts. Just select the item you want to select, and select BUY IT or press B to purchase it. When you're buying weapons, unlike auto parts, there are more selections than will fit on one screen, and you can have more than one of most weapons. PAGING THROUGH WEAPONS: Select the upper right or left arrows on the screen to see more weapons choices. There are nine kinds of weapons with three grades apiece. BUYING MULTIPLE ITEMS: Some DeathTrack weapons can be bought only once, but most can be bought several times. Each time you select BUY IT or press B, you buy another of the same item. All weapons have an upper limit that will fit in your car. Your current inventory of any weapon is indicated by a number in the lower lefthand corner of the weapon icon. So, go on. Soup up your hot rod with some powerful artillery. WEAPON LIMITS ________________________________________________________________________ Weapon | Low Grade | Med Grade | High Grade | Caltrops | 30 | 20 | 10 | Lasers | 1 | 1 | 1 | Ammo | 1000 | 700 | 400 | Mines | 30 | 15 | 7 | Missiles | 20 | 10 | 5 | Beams | 1 | 1 | 1 | Ram Spikes | 1 | 1 | 1 | Terminators | 15 | 10 | 5 | Wheel Spikes | 1 | 1 | 1 | THE LOWDOWN ON HIGH-POWERED WEAPONS CALTROPS: On the great Roman chariot races, unscrupulous charioteers threw sharp, twisted shards of metal in the path of enemy horses. The horses hooves would be slashed to ribbons, toppling their driver and leaving him easy prey for the cheating contestant. DeathTrack brings back a modern, hightech version of the caltrop, which sends a shower of spikes into the underbelly of the opponent's car, damaging the tires, brakes, transmission, and even the engine. Drop a few into the path of a car behind you, and watch the sparks fly! LASERS: Lasers! The word says it all. You want firepower? Buy a laser! You want to be able to effortlessly slice up your opponents? Buy a laser! You want a weapon that recharges itself after each race? The buy a laser! Truth in advertising laws force us to tell you that laser batteries are good for a limited number of shots per race, and can't be recharged at the pitstop. But who cares? And who reads the small print anyway? GUNS & AMMO: FREE DEATHTRACK MACHINE GUN! Well, sir, when it comes to weapons, newfangled gizmos come and go all the time. But for good old- fashioned mayhem, nothing beats the Machine Gun. Nothing. Get a Model 95, a DeltaMax 1 or even a top-of-the-line AutoCannon CX750 free with the purchase of ammo for it. All you ever have to do is buy the ammo. Keep the gun as long as you like. The shop will be glad to keep selling you fresh ammo for it. MINES: Having a problem with tailgaters? Other cars tearing around the track twice before you complete it once? Want to get rid of that pesky cruiser before he can pass you? Don't get mad. get even. With Assassin Mines from Rear Defense. Mines are small packets of explosives that your car drops directly behind it. Your little present comes to life when the offending car passes over it, tearing up his undercarriage. If you can't outrace 'em, outthink 'em. With Assassins. Go ahead and drop 'em all. There are more where these came from. MISSILES: Stop messing around with inferior weapon systems. Stop trying to save money by buying cheapo weapons. There's only one real way to win. Missiles. They cost a little more. But then, so does everything that's worthwhile. Darkwing Weapons Systems, Ltd. For when your tastes grow up. BEAMS: Picture yourself strapped behind 555,000 Megawatts of particulate vengeance! Particle Beam weapons are the newest trend in DeathTrack racing! Unlike guns, there's no more ammo to buy. Unlike lasers, they won't give out on you during the race. And you don't have to keep on buying them over and over again, like missiles. Of course, there is a slight pause between shots while the weapon recharges, but that's hardly worth mentioning. Besides, a short pause between shots is a lot better than having your laser's battery die during the race! The Arrowhead Particle Accelerator. It's the only weapon you'll ever need. RAMSPIKES: Face it. In an aggressive sport like DeathTrack, you're gonna get knocked around a lot. You need all the protection you can get. But you also want to be able to dish it out. You need Trojan Ram Spikes. Strapped to the front of your car, these ramming systems can puncture engines and fuel tanks, as well as armor! TERMINATORS: Picture a high-explosive warhead strapped to a skateboard. Now slap on a rocket pack and launch it from your machine, and you have a Terminator. As Melissa says, "Are you willing to take the chance that your opponent doesn't have one?" Terminators from Terminal. Melissa's got them. Shouldn't you? WHEEL SPIKES: Why pass a car when you can trash a car? Get Ajax or Achilles Wheel Spikes from Trojan War Systems. Trojan Wheel Spikes. They're not for everybody. But they could be for you. Available by invitation only. To see if you qualify, send roadskills resume to: Trojan War Systems, Reno, Nevada. Or use your Automatic Purchasing System to buy them. START RACING When you're done souping up your car, you're ready to race! Select OUT'A HERE for the racing menu: RUN A TRACK: Practice any of the 10 tracks. FULL CIRCUIT RUN: Run all 10 tracks to see who's the best DeathTracker. SCOPE THE STATS: Review High Scores or scan the pros and tracks. SET YOUR LIMITS: Number of Laps per Race: To change the number of laps, enter a new number from the keyboard. Enter a 0 first if you want to race less than 10 laps (06 for a 6-lap race). To change your selection, press backspace to delete. Level of Difficulty: Select the level of competition you want to race against, from Punk to MegaDestroyer, then press ENTER to accept. RUN AN OLD CIRCUIT: Restores a selected Saved Game. SAVE THE CIRCUIT: Allows you to save your circuit in progress. If you BAIL ON THIS CIRCUIT, you can restore the circuit from your last save. Have a formatted blank DOS disk handy if your playing from floppy disks. See Appendix B if you don't know how to format a disk with DOS. END RACE: A race ends when your car completes the designated number of laps or is destroyed. You can also exit a race at any time by pressing ESC, taking a last-place finish in return. At the end of a race, you'll be informed of your number of kills, your order of finish, and the amount of money you earned during the race. Before continuing to the next race in a circuit, visit the Weapons Shop to rearm and the Parts Shop to repair. See "Entering the Pit" for instructions on repairing and rearming. KEEP YOUR EYES OFF THE ROAD: A DIABOLICAL DISPLAY OF INSTRUMENTS DESIGNED TO PUT THE WRECK BACK IN RECKLESS DRIVING. Readouts are the lifeblood of a DeathTrack driver. Without this sophisti- cated array of computer-controlled driving and targeting indicators, you may as well be driving and shooting blind. There are 3 sets of readouts in your car's cockpit: The Upper Dashboard, the Windshield, and the Lower Dashboard. UPPER DASHBOARD READOUTS DAMAGE LEVEL DISPLAY (DLD) Location: Upper Left Corner The Damage Level Display (DLD) shows damage to your armor. If your armor's trashed, chances are a lot of other parts are banged up too. Got it? Anyone who can't figure that out is in a lot of trouble already. When you take a hit, the border of your screen flashes, and the DLD shows you the new damage. The DLD warns you when your car is in trouble, giving you time to pull over into the pits and get repairs. Pay attention to it or fry. AUTOPILOT ON/OFF Location: Upper Left Center This shows whether your AutoPilot is on or off. Use the A key to switch it on or off. AutoPilot will drive your car for you, leaving you free to target weapons, catch your breath, pick your toes, whatever. It doesn't drive fast and it doesn't drive well. Real Trackers do their own driving, got it? FUEL GAUGE Location: Top Center After your intensive study of the DeathTrack sport, you can guess what this does by yourself. Sitting stalled on the track is not just publicly humili- ating, but you do make such an inviting target for the rest of the pack. REARVIEW MIRROR Location: Upper Center What do you want, a physics lesson? This is just a rearview mirror. It shows the track directly behind you, and is good for lining up mines and caltrops on that speedhead trying to ram you from behind. Also helpful when you want to block faster opponents to keep them from passing. WEAPONS COUNTDOWN INDICATOR (WCI) Location: Upper Right Center All DeathTrack cars have this override system that keeps weapons systems inactive until the cars have driven about ten seconds. When the bars reach the right of the graph, your weapons can fire. Your HUD display flashed onto your windshield, and you can start blasting away! In the early days of DeathTrack, before they added the WCI, races used to be real short. RACE COUNTDOWN INDICATOR (RCI) Location: Upper Right Center These three lights under the WCI count down the start of the race. When the third one lights, you do what comes naturally. PITSTOP INDICATOR LIGHT (PIL) Location: Upper Right Corner The PIL flashes as you come up on the pit area. Overshoot the pit area and you have to go around the track again before pitting. Every time you complete a lap, you'll have the opportunity to pull off to repair, rearm, and refuel (See page 17 for more information). Look for the pit area and pull over and stop. You'll automatically be placed in the pit menu. When playing with the screen detail adjusted to the minimum, you'll need to use the PIL to know when to get over into the pits. WINDSHIELD READOUTS HEADS UP DISPLAY (HUD) Location: Center Love that HUD. It's a Mondo targeting and tracking system that's projected onto your windshield. It gives you state-of-the-art computerized target acquisition, weapon specific aiming cursor, and automatic weapons display. It's a special gift to good little DeathTrack drivers. If you're really crazy, you can turn the HUD off by pressing the H key. RADAR EARLY WARNING DISPLAY (REWD) Location: Upper Left Corner of the HUD Most of the time there won't be anything in that upper left corner. But when there is, you better pay close and careful attention to it. It doesn't give a whole lot of advance notice, but if you're good, a little warning is all you'll need. If someone locks a missile on your car, it'll follow you no matter how hard you swerve. Fortunately, missiles can be fooled into zooming harmlessly overhead and detonating in the road if you brake rapidly. If you have a truly monstrous engine, you can try to outrun them. AUTO-TARGET AIMING CURSOR (A-TAC) Location: Center of the HUD The A-TAC is the weapons crosshair that shows up at the center of the HUD. Use it to line up your shots. The shape of the A-TAC depends on your selected weapon, and it changes as you change weapons. The gun. laser, and beam cursors all stay in the center of the screen, and you line up your opponent in your sights by maneuvering behind him. The Missile cursor moves to follow the target's car. WEAPON ACTIVATION STATUS (WAS) Location: HUD Lower Left The WAS lists your weapon of choice at the bottom left of the HUD, usually with a message about the weapon. The message tells you your ammo remaining, or the status of the weapon, depending on the weapon. When you use up the weapon, the WAS will change color to let you know. Pat attention to this. You don't want to launch a terminator you don't have. LOWER DASHBOARD READOUTS SPEEDOMETER (MPH) Location: Center This is your speedometer. Your Speedometer shows your speed. If you need more information, go to night school. OPPONENT DETECTION DISPLAY (ODD) Location: Lower Left Corner Whether the targeted driver is a snob or a slob, his smirking face will pop up on the TV viewer on the lower left dashboard. Just below his mug shot is his name, and above that is his standing in the race. If the number reads #01, you know you have the leader of the pack clearly in your sights. And that's such a good feeling. Press ENTER to cycle through your available targets on the ODD. MAP ACTION DISPLAY (MAD) Location: Lower Center The Map Action Display shows you an overhead map of the current race track and the name of the city. See the one little red dot running around the track? That's you. See all the black dots? Those are your enemies. Kind of sobering, huh? The X points out the pitstop area. The triangle points to the finish line. Try to get there before they kill you. LAP COUNTER Location: Far Right The upper number in the lap counter shows the laps travelled. The lower number shows laps remaining. RACE POSITION INDICATOR Location: Lower Right Corner This shows your current position in the race. If it consistently says #10, you'd better look for another line of work. PLAYER CONTROLS: ON THE TRACK JOYSTICK CONTROLS Lower Right Corner Turn Right and Brake Middle Lower Head Straight and Brake Lower Left Corner Turn Left and Brake Middle Right Side Turn Right at Current Speed Middle Head Straight at Current Speed Middle Left Side Turn Left at Current Speed Upper Right Side Turn Right and Accelerate Upper Middle Head Straight and Accelerate Upper Left Side Turn Left and Accelerate Button 1 Fire! Button 2 Toggle Through Weapons The best way to drive a DeathTrack car is to use the joystick. It's fast, easy, and intuitive. You just lean forward on the stick to accelerate, and yank back to slow down. Slide the stick right and left to steer the car. Firing is just as easy. Press Button 2 to scroll through your weapons, the squeeze Button 1 to fire. Joystick and Keyboard functions can be used together or independently. NUMERIC KEYPAD EQUIVALENTS TO JOYSTICK CONTROLS 1)- Move Left and Brake 6)- Move Right at Current Speed 2)- Head Straight and Brake 7)- Move Left and Accelerate 3)- Move Right and Brake 8)- Head Straight and Accelerate 4)- Move Left at Current Speed 9)- Head Straight and Accelerate 5)- Head Straight at Current Speed Up Arrow -- Head Straight and Accelerate Down Arrow -- Brake Right Arrow -- Move Right Left Arrow -- Move Left KEYBOARD CONTROLS FOR USE WITH JOYSTICK OR NUMERIC KEYPAD Key Weapon Readied Key Weapon Readied 1 Machine Guns 5 Missiles 2 Laser 6 Mines 3 Particle Beam 7 Caltrops 4 Terminators A AutoPilot On/Off B Buy a Weapon or Auto Part (in the shops only) C Drop a Caltrop D Read Weapon or Auto Part Description (shops) H HUD On/Off M Drop Mine P Pause S Turn Sound Effects On/Off T Turn Music On/Off W Toggle Weapons + Increase Screen Detail (slower frame rate) - Decrease Screen Detail (faster frame rate) SpaceBar Fire Selected Weapon Enter Cycles Through Targets on the Opponent Detection Display (Changes Target on Missiles Only) ESC Exit Race TAB Move Between Menu Items ALT C Recenter Your Joystick SELECTING WEAPONS The W key and joystick button 2 select weapons by scrolling through all available weapon choices. Or, you can select the weapon directly by pressing the number 1 through number 7 keys (NOT the Function Keys) along the top of the keyboard. Try each of these techniques and see which works best for you. SPECIAL CONTROLS Beside the obvious motion and firing controls, the DeathTrack car comes equipped with some special additional keys to trigger the AutoPilot, Drop Mines and Caltrops. For example, you can use the keyboard shortcuts to drop[ mines while you're firing your front guns. You don't have to give up firing your big gun just to get rid of a pesky tailgater. The controls keys and their functions are: A AutoPilot On/Off - The race begins with the AutoPilot off. You can turn it on if you really want to. But we've never found an AutoPilot that can drive like a true DeathTracker. C Drop Caltrop - Pressing this key drops a Caltrop behind you without your first having to select Caltrops as your ready weapon. Very useful when you're sandwiched between two grunts. M Drop Mine - Works just like Caltrops, only better. ESC Exit Race - Let's you bail out of the current race without having to finish it. You'll end the race prematurely and come in last place. How disappointing. ENTERING THE PIT As you pass the flag at the end of the lap, you'll see the pit on your right. Pull to the right and stop your car to enter the pit. In the pit, you can refuel, rearm, or repair in the Weapons or Parts Shops. Elapsed Race Time is determined solely by the number of selections (button clicks) you make while in the pit. REPAIR: In the Parts Shop, damaged parts are indicated by a bog Damaged banner running through the parts icon. The cost to repair the damage is indicated in the lower righthand corner of the icon where the purchase price is normally displayed. Highlight the damaged part & select Buy It to repair. REARM: Weapons do not take damage during a race. They do, however, run out of ammo and inventory. To replenish, simply purchase the weapon as you did in the Weapons Shop before the race. REFUEL: Refueling is free; however, race time elapses while you're getting tanked. You start each race automatically with a 3/4 full tank. BOUNTIES During a circuit, one of your opponents will occasionally have a bounty on him/her. This is a special cash bonus available if you take him/her out during the course of the race. Whether you win or lose, you receive the stated amount for eliminating the DeathTracker. Now you know everything there is to know about life in the fast lane on the DeathTrack circuit. APPENDIX A: MAKING BACKUP COPIES To make backup copies of your DeathTrack disks: On a Single Floppy System 1)- Boot your system and load DOS. 2)- At the A:> prompt, type DISKCOPY A: A: and press ENTER. 3)- Follow the onscreen prompts - the Source Disk is your original DeathTrack disk and the Target Disk is a blank disk. Repeat this procedure for each original DeathTrack Disk. On a Double Floppy System 1)- Boot your system and load DOS. 2)- At the A:> prompt, type DISKCOPY A: B: and press ENTER. (NOTE: This will only work if BOTH drives are the same physical size AND both disks are the of the same density) 3)- Follow the onscreen prompts - the Source Disk is your original DeathTrack disk and the Target Disk is a blank disk. Repeat this procedure for each original DeathTrack disk. APPENDIX B: FORMATTING BLANK DISKS TO SAVE GAMES 1)- Boot your system and load DOS. 2)- At the A:> prompt, insert the disk to be formatted in drive A: and type FORMAT A: and press ENTER. APPENDIX C: USER OPTIONS AT START-UP Graphic Mode Options To select a different graphics mode, enter one of the options below after typing DTRACK. The game automatically selects the best graphics mode for you. If you like, however, you can manually select the mode by typing one of these options after DTRACK: GE - (EGA, 16-Color) GC - (CGA, 4-Color) GH - (Hercules Monochrome) GT - (Tandy 1000 Series, 16-Color) For example, typing DTRACK GC will load the game with 4-Color CGA Graphics. Sounds and Music Options To start DeathTRack with sound or music turned off, type the following after DTRACK: S0 - Turns Sound Effects Off T0 - Turns Music Off Sound and Music can also be turned off during gameplay by pressing S for sounds or T for music. To turn sound or music on again, press S or T again. Any one of the above options can be combined when starting up DeathTrack. For example: DTRACK GC S0 T0 will load the game in CGA 4-Color mode and turn off all sounds and music. Demonstration Mode To start DeathTrack in self-running demonstration mode, type DEMO at the DOS prompt. *** THE END ***